INLUMIA is a partner project involving research institutions, such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design IEM and the University of Bielefeld , and industrial companies like Miele and Krause-Biagosch . The online survey, which takes about 15 minutes to complete, shows companies where they are in their development towards Industry 4.0 and compares the results with competitors in the same industry. The assessment goes well beyond the technical level and also includes employee qualifications and future scenarios. The analysis is intended to give company manager an ideas of where they still have room for improvement.

INLUMIA wants to give medium-sized companies in Germany, in particular, an opportunity to benefit from the experiences of Industry 4.0 pioneers. The researchers analyze implementation patterns among successful IoT pioneers and derive cost-effective recommendations for action to be taken by SMEs. The project is certainly not the only one of its sort, however. In particular, the big Industry 4.0 online readiness self-check for companies set up by the VDMA is worth mentioning in this context. Chambers of Trade and Industry have brought together other self-checks on the degree of maturity of a company’s own digitization (in Darmstadt , for example) or they have set up their own (in Munich and Upper Bavaria , for example). Industry 4.0 competence centers have also started their own classifications, including in Kaiserslautern and Augsburg , for example.